Previously, at Paris Saint-Germain… The capital club has decided to wage war against Kylian Mbappé, who is demanding €55 million from his former management for unpaid salaries and bonuses. An amount that the residents of the Parc des Princes refuse to pay. There should therefore be new twists and turns on October 15 since the two camps will meet to explain themselves. But since Monday, the Bondynois is no longer the hero of the Parisian soap opera worthy of Netflix. Indeed, in this new episode, it is Ousmane Dembélé (27 years old) who plays the main role. It all started Monday morning. Several media reported that Luis Enrique had decided to leave his player at home due to disciplinary problems.
Nasri didn’t understand
Information confirmed very quickly by PSG, since Dembouz was not in the group selected for the trip to London. A few hours later, the Ile-de-France coach was questioned on this hot topic. “I’m very sincere, but I’m not going to make a telenovela out of it. There was no argument between the coach and the player, that is completely false. There is just a problem of commitment from the player to the team and not between the player and the coach. If “Lucho” therefore did not want to make a drama out of it, in Paris more than elsewhere, this type of event always takes on very important proportions. Especially since the daily The Team clarified Tuesday morning that the 2018 world champion, who will not receive his ethics bonus, had already had some disagreements with his coach in the past.
But for many, doing without the Frenchman was not the best thing to do at a time when Paris was playing one of the most important matches of its start to the season (2-0). This is the case of Samir Nasri, who criticized the Spaniard on the set of the Channel Champions Club on Canal+. “They’ve already taken the ethics bonus from him apparently. That was enough of a sanction. To put him aside, for me, is to shoot yourself in the foot. We can say what we want, ok he has waste, in the last gesture, but he makes so many differences and his understanding with Hakimi brings so much to his team, that I find that Luis Enrique wants to establish his authority too much.
Lucho doesn’t want to explain his plan
Without him, the capital club therefore faced Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. But the French champions were no match for the Gunners, who were helped by Gianluigi Donnarumma who had obviously also stayed in Paris (2-0). But the Italian is not the only one to have gone through this. Established in the absence of Dembouz, Désiré Doué was rather transparent. Obviously, Luis Enrique was questioned about his case and more generally about his plan after the failure against the Londoners. But he was icy in the face of the journalist from Canal+ Margot Dumont. “No, I have no intention of explaining my tactics, because you wouldn’t understand them. A lot of things will have to be corrected but I have no intention of explaining it.”
An attitude considered contemptuous by the press, which did not spare him. In today’s edition, The Team wrote about this: “since his decision to leave the French winger in Paris in the name of team discipline, on the eve of the most important match of the start of the season, Luis Enrique, who has still not won away in phase groups (or league) with PSG (), obviously knew that he would be a central figure in the post-match (…) The absence of Dembélé does not in itself explain why, to such normal pressure, at this level, PSG provided a response also abnormal and disturbing. But what Paris showed, offensively, suggests that perhaps a good player who responds on Sunday is better than average players who don’t respond on Tuesday.
The press mentions the absence of Dembouz
For his part, The Parisian titled: “without Dembélé, it’s not great”before adding: “they would have tried to make us believe that without guff, the party would be crazier, that in the absence of Ousmane Dembélé, Luis Enrique’s Paris Saint-Germain would not be in any way handicapped and would still have the same momentum. The capital club’s second outing, this Tuesday evening, on the pitch at the Emirates Stadium, unsurprisingly, proved quite the opposite: without Dembouz, it’s more of a loss.” The French media nevertheless clarified that it does not want to assure that with the former Barça Paris would have won or that he should not be punished. But The Parisian believes that he could have brought his touch of madness.
The journalist of RMC SportDaniel Riolo, is of the same opinion. “The guy on your team who was doing the most damage to opposing defenses since the start of the season, you chose to remove him to enforce your authority on a Monday. Maybe we should have found another way, passed it off with a diplomatic discussion, made him pay later, I don’t know, but certainly not on the eve of a match like that. This evening, when I saw Calafiori on the side (…) I couldn’t help but think that Dembélé could have caused him problems on his side. I think Dembélé could have done some damage in this defense.. Former PSG player, Edouard Cissé also regretted his absence in the columns of Parisian.
A different match with the Frenchman?
“We can say whatever we want about him, that he is sometimes clumsy but he is a player who causes chaos in opposing defenses. As the only detonator, there was only Barcola and it was easier for Arsenal to defend. It was enough to focus a little more on him to reduce his influence and then no one provoked him anymore. You’re shooting yourself in the foot by depriving yourself of Dembélé. He would have brought fear to the opponent because he is an unpredictable player, who stares at two players each time. He might have pushed Martinelli and Calafiori to defend more. He is a player who can be annoying offensively but he sows knockouts and it is better to have him with you.
Rémi Garde defends Luis Enrique. “No coach wants to deprive himself of a player’s talent. I don’t even want to know why, but if he did it, it wasn’t for pleasure. It’s a group question, the red line has certainly been crossed. To return to the match, we do not feel an ability to put a lot of intensity over time with collective control. Gifted was he ready, I don’t know, I wish he had hurt more. Offensively, you have to make the opponent doubt, not just collectively. It’s good to have a player who can eliminate and scare.” What is certain is that Arsenal appreciated not crossing paths with Dembouz, as William Saliba admitted. “Of course it did us good when we learned that he (Dembélé) was not there. We focused on ourselves, even if his absence did us good.” Paris, which would have done without this affair, will have to move on to something else. Continued in the next episode.
